563 US 493 (2011)
Firm: Sidley Austin
Issue Area: Civil Rights
Sidley Austin LLP represented California prisons in Brown v. Plata, a landmark prison law case. The court below found that overcrowding in California prisons was the primary cause of widespread violations of the 8th Amendment. That resulted in an order to reduce the prison population to 137.5% of the total design capacity of the California prison system. Sidley argued that California should not have to reduce overcrowding to the 137.5% threshold.